Croque-Monsieur Appetizer

Croque-Monsieur Appetizer

Croque-Mon­sieur, a ham and cheese baked sand­wich, is one of these quick meals you com­mon­ly find in French cafés. You would typ­i­cal­ly have it for a quick lunch with a sal­ad. How­ev­er, late­ly I have been see­ing croque-mon­sieur appe­tiz­ers, and I got the idea of using a cook­ie cut­ter to make cute mini croque-mon­sieurs. It’s extreme­ly easy to make, and it is a fun appe­tiz­er you can put togeth­er in under 10 min­utes.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, the croque-mon­sieur is a ham and gruyère cheese sand­wich, but you can sub­sti­tute the ham with turkey, and choose any cheese you like. Also, you could add a cher­ry toma­to cut in half. It also goes well with avo­ca­do. In short, you can eas­i­ly cus­tomize it to your taste!

When mak­ing appe­tiz­er-size croque-mon­sieurs, it’s great to have wood­en sticks or skew­ers, which makes it eas­i­er for your guests. I found these sticks in my gro­cery store, that worked well:

You could make this into a real­ly fun appe­tiz­er by using cook­ie cut­ters of var­i­ous shapes and sizes. For exam­ple, I used a star-shaped ones for my kids:

With a cook­ie cut­ter, cut the slices of bread in the shape desired. Do the same with the ham and the cheese. But­ter one side of a bread slice, add the cheese and ham, sea­son with salt, pep­per and nut­meg. Cov­er with anoth­er slice of bread and press firm­ly on the bread. Repeat with all oth­er slices.

Broil in oven for about 5 min­utes. Flip each croque-mon­sieur over about half-way through, to brown both sides. Take them out of the oven, and place sticks in the mid­dle. Enjoy warm.